


The Model Dilemma

by orphan_account



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 05:04:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: High fashion model Betty Cooper only works the runway at the behest of her controlling, overbearing mother 80s starlet Alice Smith Cooper. Considering quitting and constantly pressured into high-profile relationships, she meets Jughead Jones. He is a magazine director and deep skeptic of human interpersonal relations, reluctantly persuaded into putting her on the cover of his new passion project magazine.One thing leads to another and Jughead finds himself fake-dating a superstar to launch his magazine. The only thing Betty wants out of the deal is to strike out at her mother and begin to blaze her own trail in the industry. A murder at Paris fashion week changes everything.





	The Model Dilemma

Betty touched a tiny pink pimple on the side of her nose, “Honestly, Jackie, it’s not that bad.”

 “No touching!” her manager Jackie Lu hissed, “You know what Dr. Thermopolis says about touching the face. _A finger to the face is the acne you make_. I think that pimple is a sign we should cut you off of dairy entirely. You know what…I’ll drop a line to Dr. Thermopolis about it. Have you taken your supplements? You missing even one could trigger premature ag--”

 “Yeah, I’ve taken all of them. Except that one we’re supposed to be promoting for PearTree Beauty. Since you specifically told me not to. You know I don’t think its ethical for me to recommend that stuff if I’m not even taking it.” Betty said pointedly.

“Your mother’s been doing endorsements with PearTree since before you were born,” Jackie replied, as if that ended the issue.

 Sooner or later, all conversations between Betty and Jackie came down to this. The legacy of the great Alice Smith Cooper: actress and model extraordinaire. Alice was three big-budget weddings, two made-in-tabloid-heaven divorces, five Vogue covers and three blockbuster films worth of star power. There was no denying it, Alice was a powerhouse. Betty had inherited her mother’s thick golden hair, her blue eyes and her height. She even employed her mother’s former manager, hard-as-nails and equally as grating Jackie. But the similarities between mother and daughter stopped there.

 Betty smiled softly, “All the more reason to cut them off if you ask me.”

 Jackie was still off in her own world, inspecting Betty’s face, “Dairy is definitely out I think.”

 "You know eventually you’re gonna cut out all of my food groups, I’m gonna lose all of my subcutaneous fat deposits and I won’t have the cleavage to sell magazines.”

 “Nonsense,” Jackie tutted, “You can sell anything. You always will.”

 *****

 

“No high fashion model can sell this magazine,” Jughead Jones rolled his eyes, “Find somebody else! Somebody famous that maybe…I don’t know…knows or cares about technology.”

 “It’s _Betty Cooper_ ,” his content director said emphatically, “She’s media gold.”

 “So you keep saying.”

 “Look, she was in that movie,” one of his writers spoke up from the back, “The one with the autonomous robot uprising. _Independence Night._ It won an Oscar. I figure we can ask her about it. Make a piece about how important tech stuff is to her, in her world. If nothing else someone might pick up the damn thing for her on the cover and actually read the other articles we put our heart and soul in.”

 “I’ve seen the movie, she had a small speaking part. Two scenes. Maybe four lines. And she was wooden.” Jughead folded his arms, “Get someone else.”

 “There is nobody else.” The content director spoke up again, “Have you seen our circulation numbers? I get that this started as a passion project for all of us, but now there are jobs and reputations on the line. We need this magazine to sell. Whether that’s page views on our website or copies I don’t care. But we need someone like her.”

 “Fine. Bring in her in.”


End file.
